


Letting it go.

by myotishia



Series: Psyonic [8]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Gen, Multi, Other, trigger warning: blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:21:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26492578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myotishia/pseuds/myotishia
Summary: An operation to confiscate a shipment of sonic blasters doesn't go smoothly and a family reunion goes even worse.
Relationships: Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones, Owen Harper/Toshiko Sato
Series: Psyonic [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1766956
Comments: 18
Kudos: 27





	1. Defensive measures

Owen looked up, hearing music from somewhere. “Tosh, is that your phone?”

“Not mine. I don’t recognise the ring tone either.” 

“Gwen?” 

Gwen shook her head. “Not me. Did Ianto leave a radio on?” 

He stood and began following the sound. It got louder the closer he got to the coffee machine and it became clear it was a phone by the hum of the vibration. Next to the freshly washed mugs sat a phone in a pastel pink case, a small plastic alien charm hanging from the top corner. He picked it up and flipped it over as the call dropped. “I think it’s Melodys.”

“Why’d she leave it down here?” 

“No idea, but she has four missed calls.” He held it up to show the large missed calls notification on the lock screen. 

Ianto walked up from the cells and sighed as soon as he saw what Owen was holding. “I’ll take it up to her. I wish she’d just tell them she doesn’t want to go.”

“Who, what and where?” He asked, handing over the phone. 

“She’s meant to be going to dinner with her mum and sisters.”

“Oh, family shit.”

“The most uncomfortable kind.” The phone began blasting out some kind of guitar heavy song that he didn’t recognise again. As if she had been drawn by the heavy metal siren song Melody appeared, carrying the rest of the teams dinner. Gwen shot up to help as she didn’t want her workmate to push herself too hard. It was just in Gwens nature to coddle her so Mel didn’t argue. Ianto held up her phone. “Your mum’s been calling.”

Mels face went bright red. “Oh, sorry… I must have left it after I washed up and… um…”

“It’s ok. Why don’t you just tell your mum you’re stuck working overtime. She can shout at me for it if she wants.” 

“N-no. I mean thank you, but I really should answer her.” She took her mobile and ‘accidentally’ hit the reject call button. “Oops. Looks like I’ll have to wait.”

“Please don’t let me find that in the fishers tank.”

“I would never.”

“Oh, right, it’s been waterproofed. Don’t give it to Janet either.” 

“I’m not that desperate.”

“Yet.” He smiled sympathetically. “When are you meant to be meeting them?”

She rubbed the pendant hanging around her neck between her thumb and index finger. “Not for another two hours. Mum’s just making sure I’m still coming. Maybe I should just switch it off.” 

“Go and answer her.”

“But-”

“As your manager I’m telling you to go and answer that call.”

“I… Um.. Ok.” She walked back up towards the office, calling her mum back. 

Owen looked between her and Ianto. “I can’t believe she just did what you said.”

“I’m not above pulling rank.” Ianto shrugged. 

“And I can’t believe we have someone you actually outrank.”

He rolled his eyes so hard he thought they might fall out of his head. “So you’re not joining us for dinner then.”

“Oi. You leave my food out of this.”

“Hi mum.” Melody said, trying to sound chipper.

“Why didn’t you answer my other calls?”

“I’m still at work.”

“Oh, sorry, I thought you’d be out by now. Anyway, are you still coming to dinner?”

“Yep. Are the twins?”

“Yes, your sisters are still coming, but Delilah said she can’t bring Hayden.”

“It’s ok if she doesn’t want him to meet me. She’s his mum. It’s her call.”

“She’s just being protective.”

She rubbed the bridge of her nose, hoping that the stress headache she had would lessen soon. “Like I said, it’s her call… Mum, why are we even doing this? They hate me, I’ve made my peace with that.”

“They don’t hate you. You all just need to talk things over. You’re adults now, and you should all be able to act like it.”

“I have been. I even sent Persephone money for a hotel a few months back, remember? I even asked her if she wanted to have a coffee some time but she blew me off. I know you want us to get along but… I just don’t think it’s going to happen.” 

“Just try, for me. Just this once?”

She sighed. “Ok. Just this once.”

“I’ll see you in a bit.”

“See you soon.” The call ended and she rested her forehead on the desk in front of her. It was going to be a long night.

Tosh shrugged. “I think it’s nice that her mum’s trying to get them to talk.” She sipped her drink and looked to Gwen for some kind of backup, as the only other person in the room with a softer worldview.

“Sometimes people just don’t get along. It’s sad but that just might be the case.” Gwen wiped her hands with a napkin. 

Ianto sighed. “It’s not about not getting along. From what I heard they actively hate her. I mean, what kind of person locks their little sister out of the house in her pyjamas on a cold night.”

“I suppose they were just stupid kids but… That is a bit much. Anyway, we should wait to find out how tonight goes. In the meantime how’s the Osiris project going?”

Tosh swallowed what she’d been chewing. “Well, I’ve already taken out all of their smaller outposts systems so they’re making a concerted effort to tighten their security. Nothing I haven’t seen before so it won’t be an issue for now. There have been messages that are a little concerning. Apparently they’re finalising a deal tonight for six crates of sonic blasters. Apparently they’ve been collecting them since the seventies, but some of my research suggests that most of them are replicas, and not good ones. The buyer is bringing something in exchange but they’ve been very careful with mentioning any details. I think Osiris has started sending messengers to smooth out the details. Whatever it is can be traded in a single transaction so it can’t be too big.”

“So we’re confiscating both?”

“Exactly.” Said Jack. “And if possible I think it’s time we caught one of them and asked them a few questions. Whoever’s going to be running the show tonight should know more than enough.”

“What do you have planned?”

“That depends on what they have to say. They’re getting more and more brave and it’s about time their organisation disbanded. Tosh, have you gained control of their accounts?” 

Tosh nodded. “They can be emptied and closed whenever you wish.” 

“And their communications?”

“Everything can be shut down at the click of a button.”

“We need a few more pieces and we can take them down for good.”

Melody had gone home, got changed into something smart but not too flashy and got a taxi to the restaurant. She wanted to just get it over and done with so she could go home and the best way to do that was to look put together and stay quiet. The restaurant was part of a fancy hotel that she guessed Delilah had booked for her mum to stay at. She had always liked to throw money around when she had it, especially if it would make her look better to her friends. 

Melody stepped into the relatively quiet restaurant and glanced around for her family. She took a deep breath and made her way to the other side of the room to the table where her mum, Persephone and Delilah had made themselves comfortable. They looked like a normal, happy, family chatting away until they saw her. The chatter stopped and the glaring began. 

Mels mum turned and smiled. “Oh look at you. You look so much better than the last time I saw you.” She pulled her youngest daughter into a hug. 

“Thanks. You look well.” 

“Would you like a drink or anything?”

“Water’s fine. Thanks.” Mel sat in an empty chair and slid her bag to the floor. 

“It’s been so long since you’ve all been in the same room.”

Delilah mumbled something too quietly for anyone to hear but it was easy to guess what she was saying. 

Persephone sipped her wine. “So, like I was saying, Loyd’s a doctor so he’s not home as much as we’d like but we’re working it out. He said he’s going to use some holiday time soon so we can go somewhere nice together then.”

The chatter blurred together and Melody stayed silent, even when the waiter turned up. It didn’t bother her particularly. She’d snack on bread and eat properly when she got home. If she was honest she didn’t need Delilah bitching about how much she’d spent on the meal, or get her mum to pay for it and blame her later. She barely even looked up when Delilah walked past her to go to the bathroom. 

“Um… Aren’t you hungry?” Persephone asked uncomfortably. At least she was making an effort. 

Her mum gasped. “Mel, you didn’t order anything.”

“It’s ok. I’m not that hungry.” Melody put on her customer service smile. 

“You’re not doing one of those crazy diets are you?”

“What? No. No diets. Just not feeling well. I’ll be fine.” 

“Are you taking care of yourself? Maybe you should come home.”

“I’m fine mum. Better than fine, really.”

Persephone decided to change the subject before her mum started fussing. “Thanks again for helping me out a while back. I can try and pay you back soon.”

“You don’t have to pay me back.”

“Are you sure? That’s a lot of money and you’re… Where  **are** you working now?”

“It’s just a little office job. And like I said, it’s fine. I didn’t need the bonus anyway.”

“I wouldn’t mind a job that pays that well.” She laughed softly. It was strange, she’d always been just as cold as Delilah but she seemed to legitimately be trying to be nice. “Listen… I know you think me and Del’ hate you but we don’t. Well, I don’t. Being away from everyone for a while got me thinking and … I guess you being a little different isn’t the biggest deal.”

Melody gave a polite smile. “Thanks. That means a lot.” 

Their mum beamed, so glad to see her girls talking after so long, though the mood dropped back down as soon as Delilah returned.

Jack didn’t like the fact that the buyer hadn’t brought a vehicle. That meant they were going to leave an address to pick up payment, which would be ridiculous for Osiris to agree to, or it was already inside. With how many people were checked into the hotel there could be a long list of casualties if whatever it was got out. Then again, maybe that was the point. A show of force. He hoped he was wrong. 

“Anything from your position Owen?” He asked. 

Owen was sat on one of the sofas at the end of the hallway on the fifth floor, waiting for anyone to enter or leave the room they’d tracked back to Osiris. “Not yet. It’s pretty dead up here.”

“Gwen?”

In the lobby Gwen was stood by the lifts, keeping an eye on everyone that entered or left. “Not a thing. Did they cancel?”

“No.” Tosh chimed in from the SUV. “There’s a car that’s circled the building three times. I think they’re making sure it isn’t a sting operation.... They’re pulling up to the front now but I can’t be certain they’re the buyer.” 

“I see them.” She watched three men enter, dressed in very expensive suits, and head straight to the lifts. One, a blond man wearing too much cologne, looked her up and down before the lift arrived. She pretended she hadn’t seen him and waited until the lift was up at least one floor before speaking again. “Owen, if these are the buyers they’re heading your way. Expensive suits, no class and you’ll smell them coming.” 

Owen opened the paper that had been sat next to him. “Ready when they are.” After a while the lift opened and the tree men approached the hotel room door, knocking in an unusual pattern. Faster than a password. The door opened and the three walked inside. “Those are the buyers. They just entered the room.”

“Bar the door, I’m on my way.” Jack made his way around to the back of the building. “Ianto, on my mark, start the evacuation.” 

Owen placed a metal device around the door handle and activated it. It held the handle and extended into the door frame so the door couldn’t be opened without breaking it down. Ianto stood next to one of the fire alarms on the second floor, out of sight of any of the security cameras, ready to set everything in motion. 

Melody brushed the crumbs from her lap as her mother and sisters let the waiter take their plates. He wasn’t hiding his thoughts and she was sure she heard him thinking it was awful that the rest of the table were eating and making the teenage girl starve. She’d correct him but it was pointless. 

“Are you going to join us for dessert?” Her mum asked. 

She could feel Delilah glaring at her as if to say ‘don't you dare’. “No thanks. I shouldn’t have too much sugar.”

“Del sweetheart, you need to stop glaring at your sister. I’m trying to be understanding but you’ve been doing it all night and it’s getting old.” 

Delilah looked up in surprise. “I’m not.”

“You are. We spoke about this.”

“I’m not doing anything. You always take her side in everything. I’m the one paying for all this.”

“Delilah Olivia Archer, you cannot buy my silence, especially when you’re the one being unreasonable.”

“Mum, it’s fine. Maybe this was a bad idea. I should just go.” Melody said, grabbing her bag. 

“Melody, sit down. We are going to talk about this.” 

Delilah crossed her arms. “How am I being unreasonable? All these years and you’re still defending her attention seeking crap.” 

“One, language, and two, what on earth are you talking about?!”

“She’s done it since we were little. First it was her imaginary friends, then it was all the talk of monsters, waking the whole house up every night screaming, the voices in her head, having to be a special snowflake all the time, always acting as if she’s so frail and scared just because there are other people around, her so called mugging when she finally moved away. And you enable her. All the therapists and hospital trips because she was playing it up. And when she’s not blubbing about this or that she’s acting like that kid from the Omen.”

“I can’t believe you. How  **dare** you act like this! Me and your father brought you up better than this. I sincerely hope Hayden never gets sick because I’m terrified how he’d cope with you being so cold to your own family.”

“She’s not sick!”

“Her medical records would disagree. Now stop it!”

“No, someone’s got to say it! If there was really something wrong she’d fight back, but she’s so spineless she’ll never stand up for herself. I swear she’s barely even a person. She’s a monster.”

Their mum sighed deeply, realising there was no going back from this, and finished what was left of her wine. This was the first time she’d heard the sheer level of vitriol Delilah held but Melody had heard it all before. It stung, but it was an old pain, a pain she’d been able to tune out. She wanted to shout and scream but this wasn’t the time or place and Del knew it. There was an achingly long silence that was suddenly interrupted by the sound of screams from the kitchen. Mel could hear that telltale rabbit screech coming from that direction as a waiter burst through the doors from the kitchen. They were hit by some kind of light beam and hit the floor, stone dead. Chaos erupted as the diners made a run for the exit, trampling each other in a panic. 

Her mum pulled her arm as her sisters joined the scrum. “Come on. Don’t just stand there.”

“Mum, you need to go. Take those two and get to your car. Take them back to Delilahs, it should be far enough away.”

“I’m not going to leave you here.”

“I can help here. I just need you to be safe.”

“Mel-”

“Please. I’ll be ok. I promise. I’ll call you when it’s over.” 

She gave her daughter a tight squeeze as tears ran freely down her face, then ran after the twins. Melody turned back to the door to the kitchen as it was pushed open. Ianto had shown her diagrams of one of these during orientation. They were one of Torchwoods most feared creatures. 

The dalek turned its eyestalk towards her, the lights on top of it flashing as it screeched out. “Exterminate!” 


	2. Impossibility

Jack and Owen listened carefully to the meeting from just beyond the door. The three buyers sounded american, though there was a hint of another accent bleeding through that neither Jack nor Owen could place. The sellers were both english as was expected. Other than their namesake Osiris had no real connection to Egypt. 

“You brought what we asked?” One of the british men asked. 

The blond man smirked. “Not even the fabled Doctor could get rid of this thing. It’s dangerous, but with the right incentive it can be reasoned with. It thinks you are willing to get it in contact with its friends out in space.”

“As long as it deals with the thorn in our side I don’t care.”

“You can use it for two weeks for the six crates.”

“Two? We agreed three.”

“The price rose when we found out what you wanted to send it in to destroy. It’s a risky move, even for you.”

“We need them out of the way, they’ve already shown that they’re willing to burn us to ashes given the chance. Three weeks.”

“How about I demonstrate what it can do and then you reconsider our offer.” He opened a laptop and turned it towards the two Osiris members. “We’ve had it hidden in the hotel since last night. Let’s see what it does when we let it loose.”

“Wait!” The other Osiris agent said before speaking into a radio. “Have the exits blocked. If anyone escapes, eliminate them.” 

A staticy voice replied. “Sir, with all due respect, this was meant to be qui-”

“Do it!”

“Yes sir!” 

The Osiris agent switched off his radio. “Go ahead.” 

The sounds that rose from the laptop made all colour drain from Jacks face. He backed off towards the opposing wall. “All of you listen very carefully. The building is being watched by snipers that have been ordered to kill whoever gets outside. They’re locking the doors. The buyers have a dalek and it’s been released in the kitchen. Do not engage it. Get as many people as you can to the top floor.” 

There was a long pause before anyone answered. They all knew what dealing with a dalek meant. Almost certain death. 

“Jack?” Gwen said, the sound of chaos and panic drifting through her earpiece in the background. “I don’t know what’s happening but it’s stopped. It’s just standing… Sitting… It’s stopped in the dining room.”

Jack clenched his jaw. “I’m on my way. You need to get away from it.” He looked to Owen. “If they try and break out, kill them.”

“They’re not going anywhere. If I’m going out tonight I’m going to do it fighting, not sitting on my arse waiting.”

“I might be able to distract it. If I can you might be able to get out… Contact the Doctor, or something.”

“Not on your own.”

“I don’t have time for this!” Jack sprinted towards the stairs down.

Ianto felt sick. His heart was pounding, pumping adrenaline through his system at a high rate as he fought his own instincts to run for the hills. Part of him hoped it was just a replica of some kind. Something that just looked the part, a con. As if he was ever that lucky. He looked at his phone, maybe having a chance to tell Rhiannon he loved her, but there was some kind of signal dampener active. No, he wasn’t dying to one bloody dalek after surviving so much. He slipped past the crowd running the other direction, not stopping until he reached the lobby. Gwen was just standing there but she looked unharmed. This didn’t ring right. None of it did. 

He walked over to her, keeping his steps and voice quiet. “What’s going on?”

“I… I don’t know.” She didn’t look away from the dalek, visible through the large windows that showed half of the dining room. If it was a fake dalek it looked incredibly accurate, eerily so. Still, it didn’t move. Its lights flashed as it presumably spoke but that was it. 

“What’s it looking at?” 

“No idea… Should we try and get closer?”

“No, but we’re going to, aren’t we.” 

They both crouched and approached the window, staying below the line of the glass, as if that would help. 

The buyers couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Even they had trouble keeping the dalek controlled and it had just stopped in front of this woman, seemingly just because she was staring it down. By all logic she should have been dead the moment it saw her. The two Osiris agents were caught in a mix of rage at the possibility they’d been conned, and intrigue at the possibility of them having found something more powerful than a dalek. 

Quincy, one of the Osiris agents spoke up. “You’d better explain what we’re seeing here.”

“I… That’s not possible. The feed must have frozen.” The blond man, Zach, refreshed the feed but found it was still the same. “I don’t understand. Donny, go down there and find out why it stopped.”

The tallest of the three americans nodded and headed for the door. It didn’t budge, no matter how much force he put on the handle. “We’re locked in.” 

Quincy took his radio to contact his men outside but only received static. His radio signal had been blocked, cutting contact with the outside completely. He stood and grabbed Zach by the collar. “Why are our communications blocked?! What are you planning?!”

“What?!” Zach gasped. “We haven’t blocked a damn thing. You’re the ones who blocked all lines out of this place.” 

Toshiko smirked, knowing she’d made Osiris’ day a lot more difficult. She was warned the second she lost contact with her workmates and easily worked out what was going on. She couldn’t leave the SUV of course but she had almost everything she needed in there, plus it was bulletproof so she didn’t fear for her safety in any way. It would only become an issue if they worked out where she was anyway. She’d begun finding the exact location of each of the snipers using their radios and sending them to the police’s armed response unit. It was going to be a hell of a show. Now she just needed to find a way of getting in contact with the others and finding out what was happening inside. 

Melody looked directly into the eye stalk of one of the most feared beings in the universe feeling it fight back desperately against her influence. It was taking all of her concentration to keep control of it. 

“Why are you here?” She asked, her voice shaking slightly.

“To exterminate!”

“Are there more of you?”

“No.” It almost seemed shocked that it had been honest. 

“Good. Do any more of your kind know you’re here?” 

“You fear me.”

It wasn’t wrong, she was clearly terrified. “Answer the question.”

“No. I am alone.”

“Will you continue to kill if I let you live?”

“I will exterminate all humans. This world will belong to the daleks!”

“Thank you for your honesty, but I wish you hadn't said that.”

“What are you?”

She could feel its fear but she didn’t want to kill it. That would be blood on her hands. She knew she had to eventually but a few questions couldn’t hurt. “I’m human.”

“You cannot be human.”

“I am human. One hundred percent human.”

“Then how?”

“Am I controlling you? I’m in your brain. I can control every aspect of what you are, both psychological and to a lesser extent biological. Underneath that mechanical shell you’re very fragile.”

“Humans cannot use telepathy.”

“Yes we can, just no one else I’ve ever met has been as strong as me. I can feel how terrified you are.”

“I do not fear.”

“You do and I’m sorry for that. I promise, I’ll make it painless.”

“Wait!” Even the flat, grating, voice of the creature sounded desperate. “I will exterminate the humans who brought me here.”

“If you could have you would have. Please don’t let your last words be lies.”

“You do not wish to kill me.”

“I don’t want to kill anyone but you’ve left me no other choice. Go to sleep.” Her voice reverberated around the room. It was soothing, almost hypnotic, and drenched in sadness. “Die.” The final word, if the dalek could have truly heard it, would have sounded like a death rattle, a final gasp as muscles seize before losing the remnants of electrical signals, and the hiss of a cold winter wind. Its eyestalk slowly drooped down and its lights faded. She grabbed the cloth from one of the tables and draped it over the creature, not even hearing the doors to the dining room open. 

“Melody?” Gwen said, her voice catching slightly in her throat, eyes darting to the dalek.

She staggered back. “G-Gwen. I… I just… It was killing people and I…”

“It’s ok, but what did you do? How did you stop it?”

“It’s dead.”

“How?” Ianto asked, eyes wide. “Are you sure?”

“I’m certain. I… I made it die.” She clutched the next tablecloth to her chest, eyes pointed to the floor where the dead waiter lay sprawled across the tiles. “I commanded its brain to stop functioning and it did.”

He was about to ask another question when he realised how much she was shaking. Gwen had already started towards her and pulled her into a tight hug, thinking the woman was just in shock and needed to be away from the whole situation. 

“Come on sweetheart, let’s get you out of here.” She soothed, putting herself between Mel and the dalek. 

Jack and Owen reached the doorway and stared at the odd scene. Ianto approached them, still confused himself. 

“It’s dead.” He said simply. 

Jack looked between him and the alien. “Are you sure?”

“I trust Melodys judgement, but feel free to check. I don’t want to touch it.” 

“I don’t blame you but we have to be certain.” He approached the dalek, careful to stay out of the way of its weaponry. It didn’t react at all as he waved his hand in front of its eye, or when he kicked it. Even at its most crafty a dalek would always react to a direct threat. It was definitely dead. On closer inspection it had a set of rings welded to it on both its rotating head and body, likely so chains could be attached to it for ‘transport’. 

Melody looked up. “Gwen, there’s someone alive in the kitchen.”

“What? Show me.” 

She carefully made her way, her legs still feeling a lot like jelly, past the strewn bodies of the kitchen staff. Owen followed, switching off the ovens and hobs as he did. A fire on top of the rest was the last thing they needed. She reached the walk in freezer and pulled the handle. It swung open relatively easily and unveiled a shivering woman, back pressed against the shelves. Gwen slipped off her jacket and rushed over to wrap it around the womans shoulders. 

“G-Gwen?” The woman asked, her voice sounding like someone she’d definitely met before. 

The realisation struck. “Jessica? Oh god, what are you doing in here?”

“I heard the screams so I hid but I didn’t know if it was safe to leave yet.” She juddered. 

“We need to get you warmed up. I’m going to walk you through the kitchen but I want you to try not to look at the floor, ok?”

“I’ll try.” 

Melody held the door as her ex flatmate was led out, still shivering as she’d only been dressed in a white blouse and black skirt like the other waitresses. Thankfully she hadn’t been in there too long so it wouldn’t be too hard to warm her up and get her back to normal. 


	3. Ammit

As the lifts had been stalled by those hiding on the top floor the team and a still chilly Jessica were making the long climb up to where the meeting had been held. Jack had bounded off ahead as he was want to do, followed by Ianto then Owen. Gwen could have caught up but she kept looking back to check on Melody and Jess. Jessica was keeping up pretty well but Mel was lagging, out of breath and looking about ready to fall over, only held up by sheer willpower. 

“Do you want to wait here? I can make sure Jess gets to safety with the other staff and guests.” Gwen offered as they reached the landing of the fourth floor. The place had a modern design but very high ceilings so they’d climbed enough to be on the sixth.

Mel shook her head. “S’ok… Go on… Ahead… I’ll… meet you… up there… Just need… A sec.” She gasped, waving them both forwards. 

“I’ll be right back.” She ushered Jess forwards and they continued the climb. The fifth floor was where the meeting had been held and the sixth was the top floor where everyone had congregated in the presidential suite. It was a huge room but was still rather crowded. As they walked in, a middle aged woman with chestnut brown hair rushed over. 

“You came from the lobby, didn’t you?” She asked, hands clasped together and fear in her eyes. 

Gwen nodded. “Yes. Did you leave something?”

“Did you see my daughter? She’s blond, about five foot tall, looks like she’s dressed for a business meeting.”

“Melody?”

“Yes. Yes, that’s her. Did you see her? Is she alright?”

Gwen smiled softly. “She’s on her way up. She’s just taking a few moments because the lifts are out. Are you her mum?”

“Yes. Oh thank goodness she’s ok. She wanted to stay and help people in the dining room and I was so terrified she-” She cut herself off, not wanting to tempt fate. “I’m sorry. Do you know her?”

“We work in the same building. I’m Gwen. I wish it was a better situation but it’s nice to meet you.”

“I’m just glad she’s made some friends.”

“Oh, and this is Jessica. They used to share a flat.”

Jess gave a little wave and Johanna immediately went into mum mode. “Oh you look like you’ve been through it tonight. Come on, you can come and sit with us. I think one of the staff is making hot chocolate and tea.” 

It warmed Gwens heart to see someone so welcoming and Melody really did resemble her mum, though not as much as two other women that were sat where Johanna had been. They had the same features, same green eyes, same soft facial structure. The only radical difference was that one had dark brown hair and the other had blue tinted black hair. Mels sisters, they had to be. One, the black haired woman, welcomed Jess to join them happily, but the other just looked sour and didn’t seem like she wanted to talk to anyone. 

With Jess safe Gwen could head back down to join the others in capturing the Osiris men and their business partners. Jack waved her over as he got ready to kick open the door. Ianto unlocked the bar holding the door and closed it down so it could fit in his pocket. As soon as he had backed off and drawn his weapon Jack kicked open the door and rushed in. The three americans: Zach, Donny and Michah, were unarmed so they didn’t even attempt to fight back. It wasn’t as if they could be taken outside of the building anyway. One Osiris agent, Sean, complied but Quincy had never surrendered to anyone in his life and he didn’t plan to start now. He rushed past in the chaos, slamming Owen into the wall as he went. He made a mad dash down the hallway until pain exploded in his right shin, throwing him to the carpet. Gwen and Ianto grabbed each of his arms and lifted him up, dragging him back to the room.

“It’s you. Fucking Torchwood.” He snapped, teeth gritted to try and deal with the agony of his leg. 

Jack gestured to where he could be dropped. “You’re heard of us then.” 

“After what you did to our local unit we’re going to wipe you out!”

“You kidnapped two of my team, what did you expect? And last time I looked you were the one on the floor with a bullet hole in his leg.”

If looks could kill Jack would have been dead ten times over, not that it would keep him down. “How did you do it?”

“Do what?”

“Stop the dalek. Was it real?” Adrenaline was keeping this guy going rather well, barely flinching as Owen wrapped his leg so he didn’t bleed out. 

Jack glared, ice in his eyes. “It was real. And now, because you’re apparently the luckiest people in the world, it’s dead. If that thing had gotten up here what do you think it would have done?” 

Zach glanced up from his kneeling position on the floor. “We had a deal with it.”

“Daleks don’t hold up their end of any kind of bargain. It might have been desperate when you found it but you let it out and if something hadn’t killed it, it would have taken out most of the city before we could even have a hope of stopping it.”

“Something… There was a woman.”

Quincy snapped, looking like he wanted to bite the american. “Shut up you moron!” 

“Kiss my ass! You never said you were messing with Torchwood! UNIT we could handle with the right money but Torchwood? No way. I plan on living until tomorrow with all my limbs intact. My boss would never have agreed to this set up if he’d known. And that’s before finding out there’s some creepy bitch that can take down a dalek!”

“Oi!” Owen smirked. “Watch your mouth. She might be listening.” 

“Wait… You think she…?”

“Well, if she isn’t from your lot and she isn’t from ours she could be anywhere.” He’d cottoned on quickly that Jack had decided to play dumb about Mels involvement so why not play it up. 

“Listen, if they’re messing with you then this whole deal is a write off. We won’t even ask for the daleks body, you can keep it, we just wanna get out of here alive.” 

Jack barely looked at the man. “I’m sure the people dead in the kitchen did too. Now, how about you tell me where the communications dampener is.”

“It’s on the third floor but you can switch it off from that laptop.”

Ianto did the honours. 

Toshikos voice immediately trilled over their earpieces. “Are you all ok?”

“We’re fine Tosh. We have them but-”

“The snipers, I know. I’ve already sent their locations to the armed response unit.”

“Nice work. We’ll hold them here until the rest have been dealt with.” Jack cut in. “Contact us the moment it’s done.”

“Of course. Um… I’m getting some very odd energy readings from the building.”

“What kind?” 

“Wait one moment… It’s coming from the ground floor.”

He rushed to the door. “Make sure none of them leave this room.”

“Where are you going?” Asked Ianto.

“I knew that thing couldn’t be dead.” 

Melody had decided to stay exactly where she was when she heard the pop of a gunshot. It’s not as if she’d be getting in the way in an empty stairwell and she really didn’t want to be in the same room as Delilah. She’d almost forgotten the feeling of having that constant stream of pure hatred and disgust directed at her. The sound of heavy bootfalls pulled her attention in time to see Jack practically fly past.

“What’s going on?” She asked.

He stopped for half a second. “It isn’t dead.” 

She tried to follow, appreciating that it was downhill this time. Having gravity on her side smoothed out travel between floors, even if it would take her a little while to catch up to Jack and his much longer legs. When she did he was standing in the dining room, studying the dalek. 

“Um… Jack?” 

“Tosh said there’s a strange energy fluctuation from down here and I thought it might still be alive. Also, why did you follow me? You should be upstairs with your family.”

“Honestly I’d rather have a mental battle with the dalek again.” 

“Tough.”

She shifted uncomfortably on the spot.

“These things can survive being dissected. Every cell of their being is wired for survival at any cost… A single static charge could wake it up… Or it should. In fact this thing should have tried to self destruct when it saw no other way out.”

“It tried a lot of things, but that shell only does what the thing inside tells it to. If the thing insides mind is isolated from it then it’ll just sit there.”

“Are you an expert on daleks now?” 

“I know it’s always in pain. It’s just a pain it’s used to… They don’t even have a sense of hope to dull it.”

“You shouldn’t have gotten into its head.” He stood back from the shell and tossed the tablecloth back over it. “It didn’t get into yours did it?” 

She shook her head. “No. The vague traces should fade soon. Anyway, if I hadn’t then me and everyone else in this room would have been dead… How did you know my family was here?”

“That’s what you were supposed to be doing tonight, having dinner with them. I guess it didn’t go well.”

“Sort of.” She shrugged. “I think Persephone’s trying to accept me but… Delilah thinks I’m a monster. I’m tired of trying to change her mind… She might have a point in the end.”

He turned to face her, frowning. “Never say that. You’re not a monster. Not even close. This thing here is a monster.”

“I killed it by telling it to die. Isn’t that the stuff of nightmares?”

“You did what you had to do to save peoples lives. A monster wouldn’t do that.” 

She stayed silent for a long time and it was hard to tell what she was thinking with her eyes covered by her hair. “Why are we all locked in?”

“Snipers. Tosh has people on the way to deal with them. As soon as they’re out of the way it’ll just be the clean up operation to deal with. That and whatever was causing the unusual energy readings. Speaking of, Tosh, are you still getting the strange fluctuations because I’m on the ground floor and it’s quiet.”

“It’s getting stronger.” Tosh replied. “It seems to be centralised in the kitchen area.”

He approached the kitchen doors and looked in through the small windows. Everything was perfectly still and silent in there, the unmoving corpses still littering the floor, their milky eyes staring into nothingness. The lights suddenly exploded overhead, starting at the far end of the kitchen and leading right towards the doors. He reflexively stepped backwards as if something was about to crash through. The dining room lights flickered. 

“Mel, get back upstairs!”

“Jack…” She stared, wide eyed, at the doors to the kitchen as they burst outwards. The room was plunged into darkness and glass rained down from the small chandeliers above. As her eyes adjusted to the gloom she could see a large, metallic, creature with Jack pinned under its claws. He didn’t even flinch as it brought its jaws, lined with needle sharp teeth, down onto his neck. 

“The energy fluctuations have stopped but Jack’s not responding anymore.” Tosh said over coms. 

Gwen had a feeling something was going to happen and she was rarely wrong. “We’ll look into it. Any news on the response team?”

“They have two of them in custody. There are two more.”

“Right, keep us updated.”

Owen glared at the captives. “Ok, so what else did you arseholes bring?” 

“Don’t look at us. The dalek was all we had. This alien shit is new to us.” Michah, the third american, blurted out. 

A low chuckle came from Quincy. “That’s our insurance policy.” 

“What kind of insurance policy?” Owen narrowed his eyes at the injured man.

“One that is going to turn you lot onto a stain on the wall. We always thought there was a chance the dalek would be a fake so we brought backup.”

“Explain. And remember I’m the one who’s holding the painkillers.” 

Sean, the other Osiris agent, looked suddenly horrified. “You brought Ammit? Are you out of your sodding mind?!”

“What? Have you turned into a pansy too?” Quincy hissed.

“Fuck you. Ammit’s a robot, some advanced AI thing but it can’t always identify allies. If that thing’s loose then we’re all dead.”

Ianto turned all of his attention to Sean. “How do we turn it off?”

“I don’t know. It’s bulletproof, bomb proof and it doesn’t work from a controller or anything. Our best chance is getting out of here but with the radios down we can’t call off the snipers. If it’s using its stealth shielding then the lights’ll start exploding but that’s all the warning we’ll get before it attacks.” 


	4. On the edge

Melody knew there was nothing she could do to help Jack and running wasn’t even an option. She slid to the floor and pulled the arm of the dead waiter over her, hoping that playing dead would make the robot leave her alone. It opened its jaws and scanned the area for movement. The dalek registered as furniture, like the surrounding tables, so it pushed it out of the way. It nudged the waiters body, accepting that the man was dead, then moved over to Melody. It nudged her once, still unable to tell. She had her eyes closed tightly, desperately hoping it would just move on as she suppressed her breathing as much as she could. The metal beast stepped around her. It opened its jaws and nipped at her arm, leaving a set of shallow cuts that sent sharp pains through her. Still no reaction. Ammit decided that this one was dead too and walked through the doors, its claws tapping on the steps as it made its way up to the next floor. Mel scrambled over to Jack.

“Come on. Wake up… Like last time, yea?” She whimpered softly, trying to assess the damage underneath the copious amounts of blood that had covered his neck and the collar of his shirt. It was hard to tell where his blood ended and the blood running down her arm began in the darkness. “Please… I can’t do this on my own, it doesn’t have a mind I can get into to stop it. After the dalek I need to recover before I can even contact anyone… Oh god this is all my fault. If I’d just gone like you told me you wouldn’t have been distracted by me.” She started to consider the possibility that he wasn’t coming back this time. After all, she didn’t know how it worked. She wrapped his hand in hers, hot tears running down her face, the horror of the whole situation sinking in. Surrounded by the dead with the knowledge that the mechanical creature would likely kill anyone it encountered, it was only a matter of time before it reached the top floor. She clumsily pulled her phone from her pocket, blood smearing across the screen as she unlocked it. She could call her mum and try to get everyone to use the lifts to reach the ground floor without running into the robot, but that might take too long. Or she could call Ianto and hope that the others had a way to intercept it. She swallowed her panic down and hit call. 

“Ianto?... There’s a huge… Robot beast heading your way… It got Jack.” She sniffled.

His voice was as calm as ever. “Are you hurt?”

“Just a scratch… Is there anything… I can do to help?”

“Just stay with him. Listen, it’s going to be ok. You’re going to be ok. Deep breaths, in for six, out for eight.”

“Kay.” She sniffled again, her eyes burning from the torrent of tears. “Stay safe.”

“Jack would kill me if I didn’t.” 

As the call dropped she lowered her phone, the screens light half concealed under a deep crimson smear, shuddering in the darkness as she couldn’t keep her hand steady. 

Jack felt the life rush back into him, as agonising as ever, but as sensation returned to his limbs he could tell someone was holding his hand. It wasn’t Ianto, their hand was too small. Tosh? Maybe, but she always quietly spoke to him none stop until he fully woke up. Gwen? No, she always petted his hair to comfort herself while she watched over him. Melody. Of course it was. That’s who’d been with him before something hit him like a truck on some particularly potent steroids. The stench of death and copper filled his head as he made his first small movements, letting his nervous system reboot gradually. It was dark as he opened his eyes, a vague silhouette of his friend just visible in the light from one of the windows. She had her head down, taking slow, deliberate, breaths. He squeezed her hand softly and smiled as she looked at him, clearly startled. 

“Hope I didn’t scare you.” He said softly, almost not wanting to break the relative silence. 

She opened her mouth to speak but only managed a choked sob, wiping her eyes with her clean sleeve.

“Did you get that trucks licence plate? It shouldn’t be driving through the kitchen.”

“Jack…”

“I know.” He carefully sat up. “What was it?”

“A… Robot?... Like a huge metal lion. I didn’t see it that clearly.” She sniffed and tried to calm her breathing again. “I played dead and it went upstairs. I called Ianto so they know about it.”

“I should catch up with them.”

“Already? You were just… Just…”

“Dead.”

“Yea... Sorry.” 

He clambered to his feet, realising just how much blood he’d lost as it had pooled on the tiles, and the fact that Melodys hands were also a shimmering red. He helped her to her feet. “Come on. No point in getting your clothes stained for no reason. I think there’s a bathroom past the staff office behind the front desk. Hide out there for now.”

She nodded, quietly following him out of the restaurant and finally letting go of his hand so he could race up the stairs. The lights in the bathroom still worked so she could see what a mess she was in. The hot water ran a mix of yellow and red as she washed her hands and ran her arm under the tap. She slipped off her ruined shirt and pulled her waistcoat back on so she was decent before grabbing a first aid kit from the wall. Her arm didn’t look like it needed stitches so she set about cleaning it and dressing the wound. Anything to keep her mind active and on the edge of a breakdown instead of somewhere in the middle of one. 

Ianto engaged the bar lock on the hotel room door. It was as good of a place as any to keep their captives and to make sure they weren’t contacting anyone else he’d got a bin full of radios, phones and other audio devices with a laptop sitting on top just outside of the door. It would do for now. Owen and Gwen were at the top of the stairwell.

“Anything?” Ianto asked. 

Gwen glanced over. “Nothing yet. It must be searching through each of the rooms. If this thing’s bullet proof then what do we do when it gets here?”

“I’ll know that when I see it.” Owen said, not moving his gaze from the stairs. “They said it was bullet and bomb proof, but not water proof.”

Ianto joined them at the top of the stairs. “I don’t think the sprinklers are going to be able to short it out.”

“Course not. I’m going to try and use the pool.” 

“We’re on the fifth floor.”

“Really? I hadn’t bloody noticed!” He sneered sarcastically. “We just need to get it by the big windows on the east side of the building.”

“And how are we going to get it to go for a swim? We can’t just dare it to do a flip.” 

“Tosh says the snipers are dealt with so she’s free to give us a hand and that robot likely came bouncing out of the van they were keeping the sonic blasters in.” 

“Once again, we’re on the fifth floor. She is on the ground floor and the robot is somewhere in between.”

“Our job is to get the thing close to the balcony. She can do the rest.” 

Tosh pried open the wooden crate, a torch clamped between her teeth so she could see what she was doing. As she’d suspected most of them were replicas, a fraction as powerful as the real ones if they worked at all. She just needed two that were in full working order. She’d dug through to the middle of the first crate before she found a real one and most of the way through the third before she found the second. The doors to the van were destroyed so she hid the scattered weapons behind a few of the intact crates and under a plastic sheet that had been folded behind them. Thanking her lucky stars she’d decided to wear her trainers she ran around the side of the building and climbed up a six foot wall to get to the pool area. The water shimmered in the moonlight. She tapped her earpiece. 

“I’ve got them and I’m by the pool. Which room do you need me to aim for?” 

“Look for the green light.” 

“Green light?” She scanned the fifth floor windows with her eyes, finally seeing a dull green glow, likely from a glowstick, shining in the third one across. “I see it.” 

Sean hooked his arms underneath him and slipped his feet through the loop, freeing his arms. 

“The door’s barred. Where do you think you’re even going to go?” Asked Zach, leaning back against the side of the bed. “It’s over. Give it up.”

He shook his head. “Listen, this whole thing has been a massive fuck up but if we can take out Torchwood then all’s forgiven. Plus whatever took down the dalek is still around. You can either help me or sit here and get dragged off by the police. “

“How are you thinking of getting out of this room?”

“I’m going to climb down from the window. The floor below’ll be empty.” 

“Your funeral.” 

Quincy managed to sit up. “So, you’re not a coward.” 

“Shut up you prick! If you’d held your temper this might not have gone the way it has.” Sean hissed. “You’re useless with your leg like that so shut up and stay out of my way!” He didn’t even pause before pulling the window open, carefully climbing over the safety rail on the outside and lowering himself down. His wrists were still together but he could move and that was enough for now. He kicked in the window, hoping that anyone who heard would assume it was Ammit or something. With a swing of his legs he landed inside, rushing for the door which had already been obliterated. He could hear the robot breaking into a room to his right so he headed left, towards the lifts. He jammed his fingers in between the doors and wrenched them aside, pushing the other door away with his boot. A little run up was all that he needed to reach the ladder inside the lift shaft. He needed to get to the van, arm himself, and then wipe this little Torchwood team out one by one. Once he reached the ground floor and managed to get the doors open enough he stopped to try and unbind his hands. He’d never seen restraints like them. It looked like ribbon made of metal and it wouldn’t come apart. He tucked in his thumbs and carefully worked his right hand out of the band. Free from his bindings he was about to make a run for the carpark when he saw movement from the dining room. Someone was wrapping the dalek in plastic bags and striped caution tape using the light from a single torch left on a table. A mop and bucket sat by the door, the water shimmering red in what little light reached it. He recognised the woman wrapping up the alien by her hair and her waistcoat. He smiled to himself, knowing he’d hit the jackpot. 

Ammit tilted its head as it tried to identify the human in front of it. There were no logos on his clothing to identify him as a friend and it was sure it had registered him as dead not long before. No matter, its main directive was to kill anyone who was not Osiris and that is what it was going to do. It charged at the man in front of it, slamming into the wall behind him as he dodged, plaster and chips of paint flying into the air. 

“Missed me.” Jack teased, egging it on to chase him up to the next floor. He didn’t know the full extent of Owens plan but he’d been told enough to know the gist. He needed the mechanical creature to want to chase him and the thing was falling for it, hook, line and sinker. It scrambled up the stairs after him, its claws leaving gouges in the carpet, skidding across the landing as it had lost sight of him. The room at the far end of the hallway was open and Ianto peeked out of the doorway, ducking back as Ammit charged, hitting and splintering the wooden door frame as it did. The lights were on inside the room and it looked towards the far end of the room, seeing Owen. It charged again, its jaws wide, ready to tear its target in half. Unfortunately for the robot all it got was a mouthful of glass as it shot through the windows and out onto the balcony. It would have braced itself against the solid metal of the balcony, but two sonic blasts sent the balcony crashing down and landing in a heap of twisted metal. Ammit flew through the air, its legs flailing to get purchase on a surface that wasn’t there. It landed in the pool with a huge splash and a wall of sparks. The tiles at the bottom of the pool were shattered but Ammit was fried so it could be considered a net gain. 

Ianto stepped out of his hiding place behind the door. “Its AI wasn’t that intelligent then.”

“Works for us. Let’s get the Osiris lot in the SUV before they try and kill each other.” 

Tosh made her way back to the van, checking that it hadn’t been looted. Thankfully it was untouched. She could finally see the end of the night within her grasp and was letting herself look forward to a bath and a glass of wine when she heard a scuffle. She edged her way through the kitchen, avoiding the bodies that had each been carefully covered with a tablecloth, and looked through the windows in the kitchen doors. She could barely see what was going on in the gloom.

“Just shut up!” Sean hissed, his hand clamped over Mels mouth as she struggled to free herself. He was sat on her back, trying to grab her arms at the same time as keeping her quiet. 

Tosh ran in and levelled the sonic blaster at him. “Get away from her!”

He looked up and visibly deflated. He’d seen what those blasters could do so he moved away and placed his hands over his head. Melody grabbed the tape she’d been using and wrapped it around his wrists, looping it up around his neck so he couldn’t twist his way out of it again. 

“Are you ok?” Asked Tosh. 

Melody just shook her head and dropped the tape, walking out of the dining room and into the back office. 

Jack had the two Osiris agents locked in the weevil cages in the SUV before the police were allowed in to deal with the three americans. The dalek had been placed into the back of the van and the doors held closed with bungee ropes. Owen had offered to drive it back to the hub as Ianto was still feeling more than a little iffy about the thing. Most of the guests were being taken to other hotels in the area for the night and the staff were being interviewed then sent home. Melody sat letting Owen double check her arm and redress it after the fight. 

“Done. You want a lift home? You look like you’ve had enough for today.” 

She nodded. “Please.” 

“Want to say goodbye to your mum first?”

“I’ll text her. After all this I don’t think I could cope with my sisters.”

A harsh voice pierced the air. “Oh for the love of… What is she milking this time?” 

“But it looks like I don’t have a choice.” 

“So what have you been doing down here? Getting in the way of the police?” Delilah practically spat. Owen glared, knowing he shouldn’t say anything but being one step away from calling this woman a bitch and telling her to get lost in so many words. 

“Just go away Delilah. This day’s been bad enough without you starting.”

“So you can con more people?”

“Delilah-”

“She thinks she’s psychic.” The woman smirked. “It’s sad really.”

“For once in your fucking life can you please just shut your mouth?! People have died tonight! Actual people with friends and families that are never going to see them again and all you can think of is bringing me down yet again. Is it because you’re insecure? I mean that’s usually why people cheat on their partners with multiple others. Are you bitter because your friends liked your creepy little sister more than you because all you ever did was bitch behind their backs? Grow up! You’re a mother now so stop acting like a pathetic secondary school bully!”

Delilah looked stunned that her sister had the gaul to fight back. A loud slap rang out through the quiet area and Owen pushed Delilah back. 

Mel grabbed his arm with one hand and rubbed her face with the other, a red hand print blooming across her cheek. “It’s ok Owen.”

“No it’s bloody well not.” He growled. “I don’t give a shit who you are, get out!”

Melody took her phone from her pocket and sent two quick texts. “She’s not worth it. Trust me, it didn’t hurt. She hits worse than I do.” 

Having someone else standing up for her sister, Delilah retreated back where her mother started laying into her. Only moments later her phone rang and even across the room everyone could hear a very angry male voice on the other end. 

Owen raised an eyebrow. “Did you text your dad?”

“No. I sent a message to three of the men she was sleeping with around the time her son was conceived with her home phone number saying she wanted them to call her. That’s her boyfriend.” Mel smiled softly and waved to her mum, who had worked out what she’d done and just smiled back, miming that she’d call her. Persephone was holding back laughter as Delilah stomped around, trying to convince her boyfriend that it was all lies. 

“Why didn’t you ever do that before?”

“I always felt bad before. I don’t feel bad anymore. I just want to go home and cry myself to sleep.”

“You sure you should be alone tonight? This was all pretty traumatic, even by our standards.”

“Probably not. I can see myself jumping at every odd sound. I just don’t want to be a burden on anyone else.”

He waved Gwen over. “Mind if Mel stays at yours tonight?”

“I don’t mind. Rhys is in France so I’ll be on my own anyway.” Gwen smiled softly. “Girls night in? We can eat our own body weights in pizza.” 


	5. A brief moment of peace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (There may be some dark themes ahead)

Mel held her phone between her shoulder and her ear. “I’m safe.”

“As long as you’re sure. Your nice friend Jessica’s letting us stay with her tonight and we’re going to go and see your nan tomorrow but … The day after can we meet up? Just you and me.” Johanna said, the tiredness seeping through her words. 

“Yea, that sounds good.”

“Ok. I love you sweetheart.”

“Love you too mum.” The call ended and she placed her phone on the arm of Gwens sofa. She felt a little better now she’d gotten changed and was somewhere a bit more familiar. Plus she’d actually eaten. Gwen had spent the time since they’d got back acting as if everything was normal, trying to fend off what she knew they were both feeling. 

“Is your mum ok?” She asked.

Mel nodded. “Yea. She’s staying with Jess tonight… Sorry about all the drama earlier. I’m sure that was the last thing you guys needed.”

“Don’t be silly. It wasn’t your fault. Your sister was lucky I was talking to Ianto at the time. He had to grab me so I didn’t give her a taste of her own medicine.”

“I’m just tired of it, you know? I stayed down in the restaurant just cleaning up the blood so I didn’t have to be near her. I don’t think I’ll have to see her again though after what I did.” 

“Good. How are you holding up after facing a dalek?”

“It was terrifying. I’ve never felt a creature like that before. It didn’t have any positive emotions at all… Just hate piloting a machine.”

“We all thought it was the end. I wanted to call Rhys but the phones were blocked and all I could think was him getting home tomorrow to this place empty… Jack would still be alive… He’d have to tell our families… I know there’s always a risk of us not getting home but all of us being wiped out just like that.” She stared off into nothing. 

“But we did get out.”

She shook herself from her thoughts. “Yea, we did. How did you even do it?”

“I told it to die.”

“You… Told it.”

“The mind’s a complex thing but at its base it’s just like a computer that controls our vital biological functions, switch that off and it’s over. I… I hate that it’s so easy.”

“It’s like the first time you have to open fire on something. You know if you pull that trigger you’re ending a life. It’s an easy movement but… It stays with you. You just have to remember what you’re doing it for. Who you’re saving.” 

“Um… What do you think’s going to happen to those Osiris guys?” She played with the pendant around her neck. 

“They’ll be lucky if Janet doesn’t  **conveniently** escape and take a few bites out of them in the night. Then Jack can have words with them in the morning.” 

“I just feel so stupid. I knew he was there but the only place I could run was the kitchen which I thought was even further from help… I just froze up.” 

She reached over and rested her hand over Mels. “It’s ok. That’s a natural reaction to an overwhelming situation. We’ve all been there.”

“But I should be able to handle it. I faced down the scourge of the universe but one human being and I just… I just can’t.”

“You don’t have to. We’re a team.”

“I need to be able to hold my own otherwise I’m just going to drag you down if this keeps happening, and it will, it always does. Every time.” She curled her knees up to her chest. “There’s no escape and the only thing I’m good at is getting people hurt.”

“Melody, calm down. It-”

“You didn’t see it. That robot monster just bit down on Jacks neck. There was so much blood and there was nothing I could do! I just had to lie down on the floor next to a corpse and hope it didn’t do the same to me. It was inches away from me. If it could breathe I would have felt it and it bit me to make sure it didn’t miss a single living thing. I didn’t know if Jack was going to come back this time. I thought… I thought I was alone and I couldn’t even think, let alone use any telepathic ability I had left. And the only reason he got hurt in the first place was that I didn’t just go when he told me to. I could have been the reason he died.” She rocked back and forth, rambling, that breakdown having finally hit like a tropical storm. “He could have been one of those bodies I covered over. How would I face any of you?! How would I face myself? I can’t get any of it out of my head! The blood, the dead staring eyes, the smell and that bastards voice in my ears.”

Gwen pulled Mel into her arms and held her close letting her half cry, half scream, into her shoulder. She’d been expecting it, that was the whole point of neither of them being left alone. They’d learned that after the incident in the beacons, and dealing with Abbadon, and the time Owen got shot and they were terrified of him dying. If the bullet had beer a couple of inches to the right it would have torn his heart to shreds. After all that they’d set up a few rules. Step one, don’t be alone, sleep on someones sofa if you have to. Step two, don’t hop into bed with someone to feel better, it never turns out well. Step three, don’t get drunk, it makes things worse. Step four, make sure you’ve eaten something, low blood sugar and panic throwing up on an empty stomach was just painful. 

It was nearly an hour before Melody had calmed enough to even be coherent again, falling into a kind of exhausted haze. Gwen smiled softly and petted her hair. It was strange, Gwen knew she should be feeling shaken up about the day but all she could feel was a comfortable warmth. It was like all the edges of the world had been sanded away, the ache in her muscles had gone and her mind had a kind of afterglow sensation to it. Something in the back of her head was trying to float to the surface. Something she’d been told. A voice that made her stomach churn echoed through her memory.

It was something Naomi had said to her. “It was in my head. It was like she was reaching in to find something to hold on to. I felt needed. It was warm. It was… Bliss.” 

The soft feeling suddenly made sense, but she didn’t want to push her friend away. Anyway, she wasn’t going to get addicted to it. She’d just slowly ease it out of her mind, but for now it was helping to make the day tolerable. 

Tosh had immediately gone to have a bath when she got to Owens place. They’d just managed to use some rope and a van to pull Ammit out of the pool and get it ready for transport and that was them done for the day. She was looking forward to finding out how the stealth shield worked. She wrapped herself in her soft dressing gown and headed to the living room. Owen was sat on the sofa, the tv playing softly to itself as he wasn’t really watching it, scrolling through the latest intercepted emails from Osiris. 

“Still seething?” She asked, sitting down next to him. 

“No… Yes… A bit. Anyway, right now I’m watching the Osiris higher ups having a breakdown about what happened. They’re trying to work out how to keep their snipers quiet and they pretty much think the two we’ve got are dead.”

“I’m sure Jack will gladly use that to get what he can tomorrow.”

“They’re more pissed they’ve lost Ammit. Apparently it wasn’t meant to be taken off site.” 

Tosh smiled. “And now it’s mine.” 

“It’s better off. It’s not going to be long until we shut this whole thing down.”

“I just hope it goes well. Before I got access to their system I didn’t realise just how expansive their operation was.”

“I thought they were like other black market dealers we’d shut down before. Still don’t know why UNIT hasn’t stepped in.”

“I have a few suspicions.” 

“Yea?”

“I think they have a hostage. At first I considered blackmail but now I don’t think that’s possible. I’ve found the deeds to a couple of houses that definitely aren’t being used like bases but are always guarded.”

“And why haven’t we sent those over?”

“I have. They’re having to be as careful as we are. The second Osiris even thinks the hostages have been found they’ll move them.”

“True… I looked into the two we captured. Nasty pieces of work the both of them. Quincy Samuels, the one with the shot up leg, was kicked out of the army for beating the shit out of his commanding officer. Got a couple of ABH convictions under his belt too. The other one, Sean Tranter, was in and out of young offenders for petty crimes then joined a gang. No more arrests but I think he just got better at not being caught.”

“Jack’s usually good at dealing with those kinds of people.”

“Let’s hope so for their sakes.” He closed the laptop lid and placed it on the coffee table. “Feeling better?”

She snuggled into his side. “Much. I doubt I’ll sleep well but at least I feel clean.”

“We survived being around a dalek, I’ll settle for ever sleeping again.” He wrapped an arm around her and gave her a soft squeeze. “I feel sorry for Ianto, seeing one of those things again.”

“Do you think he’ll be ok?”

“I hope so. He can talk things through with Jack and hopefully it won’t get under his skin.”

The hub was finally quiet after moving the sonic weaponry to the firing range for testing, Ammit to an empty room so Tosh could dismantle it and the dalek, still wrapped up in cloth and tape, in the secure archive. It hadn’t been as unnerving covered in tablecloths and bright yellow and black striped tape. It looked like a childs art project. Ianto had appreciated Mels attempts to cover it for his benefit. They’d briefly spoken about his history with daleks and cybermen that ended in her hugging him awkwardly. He’d appreciated the sentiment. 

The clock said it was twelve thirty three, but it felt so much later as Ianto finally collapsed into bed. He frowned at the cold sheets, Jack having not joined him yet. Jack was always warm but not oppressively so. He was comfortable, cosy, at the perfect temperature to make you sleepy. Though he rarely slept he still always came to bed so his absence was worrying as well as annoying. 

“Jack?” Ianto called up. 

The captains voice drifted down, fatigue dragging each word out. “Give me five minutes… Make that ten.”

“What are you doing?” 

“Checking on our prisoners.”

“They’re asleep. Just like we should be… Jack.”

“Hmm?”

“We’ve checked for tracking devices, explosives, poisons, kill switches of multiple kinds and I even took their boot laces. They’ll be there in the morning. You don’t want to miss something because you’re tired, do you?” 

He sighed deeply, knowing his lover was right. He hadn’t felt so bone tired in a while and he’d need his wits about him for the interrogation. In the old days he could do it in his sleep but now his heart had softened slightly. He used to be able to separate himself from the person on the other side of the table easily but now, every so often, they’d get to him. They were human too, even if they didn’t act like it. Gwen said there was always a reason people acted like they did. It was never an excuse, of course, but it was a reason. Then there were those who he just didn’t feel that connection with. Those were the issue because holding back was so much harder. Anyone who dared hurt his team, his friends, those he didn’t exactly see as people anymore. It was an ugly side of him he’d begun to hate. That was the part that wouldn’t feel a thing, no matter how much pain that person was in and he could keep that going for as long as necessary. He didn’t want his team to have to see that. Ever. Military types didn’t crack easily and he suspected even scaring them with Janet wouldn’t work. He hoped he was wrong. He  **really** hoped he was wrong. He climbed down into the little bunker he called a bedroom and shed his clothing, throwing the various items into the laundry basket. Most of them anyway. His socks always ended up behind it, without fail. Ianto cuddled up to him the second he got into bed, absorbing what heat he could. 

“You can keep your cold feet to yourself.” Jack smirked as he switched off the bedside lamp. 

As if to make a point, Ianto tangled his feet between the mans ankles so there was no escape. “I prefer sharing.” 

“What are your shoes made of, ice?”

“Blame my circulation.”

“I’ll have to get your heart rate up more often.”

“I agree, but right now I’m barely keeping my eyes open.”

Jack ran his fingers through the back of Iantos hair, pulling a contented sigh from his partner. “Good night.”

“‘Night” It wasn’t long before his breathing settled into a slow rhythm and sleep took him. Meanwhile, Jack stared up to the trapdoor leading to the hub, his worries hanging heavily over his head as the dim blue light pulsed hypnotically from above. 

Melody rolled over in her sleep, the duvet tangled around her legs, as her eyes darted beneath tightly closed lids. A man stood at the far side of a room, barking orders. He was tall and had a greenish tint to his skin, highlighted further was he walked into the light. Three bodies lay in the middle of the floor, each covered in a green plastic sheet, definitely dead. The man raised his hand and, as he did, the bodies rose up to a sitting position. 

“Tell me what you know about Torchwood.” He said, his voice low and raspy as if he’d smoked a pack a day since infancy. 

The first body turned its head and opened its mouth but no sound came out. Rancid air tried to send vibrations through a decomposed voice box and gave nothing but a desperate sigh for its efforts. That body fell lifeless once again. The second rocked in place, bony hands digging into its arms as it silently screamed to itself. Moments later it too fell still once again. The final body was a man she recognised. Ben, the man she’d met trapped in her apartment building. There was deep, purple and yellow bruising in a ring around his neck and he seemed unable to lift his head. He shivered and looked up at the tall man as best he could.

“Torchwood?” Ben rasped. “What do you want with them?”

“Everything you know.”

“Why?”

“I see you’re a loyal man but you owe them nothing. I have given you this drop of life so I only ask for information in return.”

“I never asked for life.” He hissed. “Don’t know who you are, but I know evil when I see it. Go to hell.” 

The tall man scowled and Ben fell back, dead once again, still and staring into nothing. “Take these away. Find me someone willing to talk, preferably someone I don’t have to resurrect. I’m sick and tired of this Torchwood. We dealt with UNIT and we can deal with them. We just need the right thing to hold over them.” 

The bodies were dragged away, leaving him alone. He sunk down into a chair and stared at Melody, though he didn’t seem to be seeing her. 

“This vessel is weakening by the day. I’ll need another soon.”

A voice that wasn’t her own fell from her lips. “You may be able to solve both of your problems in one move, but you risk throwing everything away if you do it.”

“I don’t need your moral nonsense Ma’at.”

“I’m simply telling you that there may be a human vessel that would suit your needs perfectly. An immortal.”

He raised his head. “You have my interest.”

“But if you fail then you’ll die.”

“I won’t fail.” 

The voice that was not Melodys chuckled. “We shall see.” 

Mel awoke with a start and slipped from the edge of the bed to the floor with a resounding thump. 


	6. Interrogation

“Um… Could you check something for me, if you’ve got a free moment?” Melody asked quietly.

Tosh looked up from the drive she was examining. “Of course. What do you need?” 

“I was going to ask Gwen but she’s working with Jack. I just need to see if someone’s been reported… dead.”

“Do you have a name?”

“Ben. Benjamin Hawkins.”

“That sounds familiar.” 

“He was the man that was trapped in the pocket dimension at my flats.”

“Oh, yes. I remember him now.” She smiled, turning to her keyboard and looking up his name. Her face fell. “Oh.”

“What?”

“I’m sorry but he was found dead in his home the day before yesterday.”

Melody clutched the pendant around her neck. “Does it say how he died?”

“Yes, he-”

“Hung himself.”

“Yes… How did you know?” She wasn’t upset by the interruption, mostly because it looked like Melody was about to collapse, her skin had gone an ashen white and she had a slight tremor to her.

“I had a dream last night… I think I need to talk to everyone as soon as you all get the chance. This could be important.”

“Are you ok?”

“Not really, if I’m honest. I’m a lot better than last night but …” She sighed deeply. “It’s a lot, you know?” 

Tosh gave a sympathetic smile. “Yea. It’s hard. If you need to take a break any time today I’m sure no one’ll mind and we can go out for lunch if you like.”

“That sounds nice actually, thanks.”

“Any time. I’ll tell Jack about your dream as soon as I see him so don’t worry about it.”

Jack glared at the man chained to the chair across from him. Cold eyes boring into his soul.

“Cut the crap. I know you Torchwood lot aren’t the monsters you’re made out to be. I haven’t even seen anyone that wasn’t at the hotel yet. Big scary organisation and there’s what, five of you? If you didn’t have the amount of tech you’ve collected over the years you’d be six feet under by now.” Quincy growled.

Jack almost smirked. Almost. He wasn’t going to let the mask crack just yet. “How’s your leg?”

“It fucking hurts, but that’s not going to change anything.”

“You and I both know you won't last another day without some kind of painkiller. You’re all fire but that fire burns out quickly. I’ve got forever.”

He didn’t answer. He glanced to the door, considering his options.

“Go ahead, try and escape. Your organisation thinks you’re dead. Your family haven’t seen you in years. There’s nowhere for you to go.” Jack spoke with a confidence that said these statements weren’t conjecture. They were facts.

He winced, whether from the realisation that the captain was right or the pain in his leg he’d shown a small sign of weakness. “So what are you planning to do to me?”

“Right now? I just want to talk. We have a nice conversation and our medic comes in and gives you something to numb the pain in your leg. You don’t tell me what I want to know on the other hand, I could just leave you in here. I could make that pain in your leg feel like just a mild graze in comparison to what I could do to you. Trust me, before this I was an expert at enhanced interrogation.”

“Let’s face it, I’m never seeing the outside of this place again so what does it matter?”

“Who said I wasn’t planning on letting you go? You can’t go back to Osiris and no law enforcement organisation in the world would believe you so why keep you here?” 

“You think I won’t come back for revenge if you let me go?”

“You wouldn’t stand a chance.”

He looked at the floor, weighing up his options. “Just… Tell me one thing.”

“Go on.”

“What was that thing that stopped the dalek?”

“We don’t know. It was gone by the time we got there.” Jack said plainly. 

Quincy closed his eyes. “Fuck. This was meant to be such an easy job. Just go out and trade some weapons for something so much stronger. Give Ammit a test while we were there. Sean didn’t know I’d brought it but… He should have known better. He might outrank me but most of the time he’s too cautious. Always overthinking things. He said he tried to catch that thing that stopped the dalek but some other woman held him up at gunpoint.”

“Who he attacked was an innocent woman.”

“One of your people?”

“That’s none of your concern.” 

“Then shoot me. That’s all I’m giving you.”

Jack stood, his chair screeching across the floor. “I’ll let you think about that.” 

“Do I at least get fed?”

He didn’t answer, instead he walked out and closed the heavy door behind him. Gwen was waiting in the hallway. 

“How did it go?” She asked.

“He’ll spill what he knows by the end of the day, but if you want to play good cop feel free. He might react well to it.”

“Hopefully better than my one. He’s like talking to a brick wall.”

“He doesn’t have a hole in his leg so he has a bit more willpower. I’d give it a go but…”

“But?”

“I shouldn’t… I’ll be the one cleaning up the mess later.”

“He scared her, that’s all. Yesterday was hell in so many ways it’s no wonder she needed a bit of a breakdown.”

“It’s not just that. They made a deal specifically for a dalek to set against us and when that didn’t work they sent a murderous robot after us. If we hadn’t stopped it… If Mel hadn’t given us time to get people away from the bottom floors. It would have been an even bigger massacre than it was.”

“I know… Are you holding up ok? I spoke to Ianto and he seems to be doing surprisingly well.” 

“Turning the thing into a christmas present helped. The sooner we can get Osiris dealt with the better.”

“Jack… Come on, Ianto isn’t the only one with history when it comes to daleks.”

He looked away, really not wanting to think about it. “When I heard there was one of those monsters just downstairs… I thought I was going to lose all of you. I even thought about throwing myself at it to try and slow it down and let you all escape, but it was pointless with the snipers outside. It’d catch up eventually anyway. I was so sure it was unstoppable and the Doctor wasn’t even here to give us a fraction of a shot. I couldn’t let myself believe that Melody stopped it. Part of me still can’t. She spoke like it was some pathetic tormented creature and all I could think about was the damage it could do. It doesn’t understand mercy, compassion, guilt and she was feeling sorry for it. I was angry so I changed the subject. I know she wasn’t excusing what it was planning to do but...”

“It hit a nerve, and now you have all these pent up feelings and nowhere to put them.”

“And if I walk in there and look at him after what he did all of that’s going to vent.”

She rubbed his arm. “Just leave it to me then, yea?”

“Thanks.” He placed his hand over hers. “But I should do this. I feel better with it out in the open.”

“As long as you’re sure. Just remember that even if we can’t get anything out of him we always have a plan B. As a last resort.”

“I’m not asking Mel to go into his head.” 

“It might make her feel better.”

“How?”

“Change the power dynamic in her head. Give her a bit of control back.” 

“Only as a last resort and only if she’s one hundred percent on board. Anyway, go and be the good cop.” 

Sean certainly was acting like a brick wall, sitting still and silent, staring into the middle distance. Jack clicked his fingers in front of the mans face, making him blink.

“You are still here then. I’ve been told you refuse to answer any of our questions and I’m going to be honest, that doesn’t bode well for your safety here.” 

Sean continued to stare forward, ignoring the other man.

Jack pulled over a chair and sat. “The woman you attacked was pretty shaken up. She was just trying to give those people some dignity in death.” For a fraction of a second he swore he saw the captives eyes dart towards him. “That robot of yours cut up her arm to see if she was still alive. You know, I can’t work out why you attacked her if you thought she was the thing that stopped the dalek. Or wasn’t it about that? Maybe you were just frustrated and wanted to take it out on the weakest looking person you could find… I suppose it doesn’t matter. That was all personal curiosity. What we really want to know is about Osiris. We already know where your bases are, your shipment schedules, buyers, sellers, all the day to day stuff. What I want to know is just how many people you have at head office. I want access codes, passwords, anything that’s isolated from your network.”

He wasn’t giving anything away.

“I’ve got forever Sean and you’re not leaving until I have what I want. What kind of state you’re in when you leave is up to you… Gwen’s the nice one. She would have just asked repeatedly but I know that won’t work. Not on a guy like you. You can just tune it out. We’re not going to be able to just scare it out of you either so we’re left with two options.”

He let himself glance at Jack, almost shuddering when he looked into the captains eyes. 

“One, I can break you, mentally and physically. Or two, I have everything I want to know dug out of your brain by our telepath. And I can tell you from experience that no amount of training will be enough to stop them. You were just a gangs muscle so we both know you won’t last through either. You’re not playing with street corner drug dealers anymore. And don’t try and lie to me. Our doctor gave you a shot of truth serum when we brought you in.”

The room suddenly felt very cold and crushingly small. He was in way over his head and he was realising just how far. “Alright! Alright. Quincy’ll probably spill everything anyway. I haven’t got much access but I can give you what I have.”

“See? Isn’t it easier when you just play along? A quick aside, your boss, who is he? We’ve been researching but he’s like a ghost.”

“We just know him as Osiris. I only ever saw him once. He’s careful, always has his people around him. There’s this woman called Ma’at and there was this guy with eyes like a snake, but I heard he defected. They never leave the base. If you know where it is then you know how big the place is. Osiris has owned that cold war bunker for years and it’s fully functional. You can’t get in without being let in unless you want to fight your way through a whole battalion. Everything’s closed off.”

Ianto placed Melody’s coffee on the desk next to her, watching her run her fingers over the paper in front of her as she smoothed the shading on the sketch in front of her. 

“Oh, thank you. I didn’t hear the door open.” She smiled softly.

“Who’s that?”

“The man in my dream, vision, thing. I thought it might help identify him.”

“Looks friendly.” He said dryly.

“Tosh said she’d tell Jack about it when he was done with the… um… Interrogation. I haven’t heard any death fear shrieks yet so that’s good I suppose.”

He shrugged. “That’s a matter of opinion. Gwen said you broke down last night.”

“Yea.” She placed her sketchbook aside and picked up her coffee mug. “I feel a bit embarrassed about it now.”

“Why?”

“I completely lost my composure. I wasn’t even really that hurt.”

“After yesterday you’re allowed to be upset. We’d be more worried if you weren’t. How’s your arm?”

“Sore… How do you guys deal with it all the time?”

He pulled over a chair and sat. “We don’t. We’ve all had our breakdowns, and some of us have handled it better than others.”

“Yea?”

“Oh yea.” He laughed softly. “I got drunk and talked to a random barmaid that eventually tried to sell Jack into slavery off planet. Owen had a fistfight with a weevil, and that was after years of drinking and sleeping around. Tosh dated an alien who turned out to be a serial killer. Gwen slept with Owen.”

“Wait, what?!”

“This was before him and Tosh finally got together. And Jack ran off with the Doctor for a bit after overfeeding a demon to death. I swear he’s the reason I’m going bloody grey.”

“Honestly, I’d believe anything that you said Jack did. But can we go back to Gwen hooking up with Owen?”

“It was bad for the both of them. While Jack was away she finally told Rhys. She ended up sleeping on my sofa for a week until they were both calm enough to talk things over. She ended up telling him everything and with Jack away, god knows where, none of us wanted to try and tell her to retcon him. I think the honesty helped them in the long run. You should have seen Rhys’s face when he first saw Myfanwy.” The corners of his mouth curled into a fond smile.

“They seem ok now though. I never would have guessed.”

“Yea. The proposal got called off though. Not forever, just later. Noone can be expected to handle everything we do, and if you seem to be then there’s usually something going on. I wish we’d seen that with Suzie.”

“Suzie?”

“She worked with us before Gwen joined… She was killing people to test an alien artefact. Technically she’s on the red list as she shot Jack and tried to kill Gwen.”

“Red list… People who’ve killed other Torchwood agents?”

“Yea, that’s the one. It’s a short list but… It’s a sad one. Let’s hope you never have to see it.” 


	7. A meeting for another day

Jack looked at the sketch he’d been handed. “And you were looking through someone elses point of view?”

“He called her Ma’at… He was raising dead bodies to get information from them. I didn’t recognise two of them, they looked like they’d been dead for a while, but I did recognise Ben. He refused to talk.” Melody said, playing with the pendant around her neck.

Tosh stepped in. “Her description checks out with his cause of death. I called the coroner and his body was picked up by a family member, except he had no family left.”

“And Osiris is looking for an immortal vessel. Which means you.”

“Better aliens than him have tried.” Jack smiled. “I hate to say it but I think we need backup for dealing with this one. Ianto, give Martha a call, tell her it’s urgent.”

Ianto nodded and walked off to make the call. 

“If you have any more of these dreams I want to be the first to know. I don’t care what time of day or night it is.” 

“O-of course.” Mel said, a little out of the loop with who was being called and why. 

“Owen, get Quincy dosed up and retconned. He can wake up in the hospital.”

Owen raised an eyebrow. “Only him? What about the other one?”

“I want to confirm a few things before he goes anywhere.” 

“He’s still in one piece?”

“Lucky for him he decided to talk.”

“Just saying, noone would notice if he somehow ended up with a broken nose.”

“Don’t tempt me. Tosh, can you and Gwen have another look at the three buyers. Something just isn’t sitting right about them. I can’t put my finger on it but I’m sure you can find something.” 

Zach sighed, looking down at his handcuffs as he sat in the back of the police van. He opened his mouth to say something when the engine switched off.

“Are we there already?” Asked Donny, glancing at the doors nervously.

“The UK isn’t that small.”

The doors swung open and a police officer stood back, taking off his sunglasses. “Get out.” He said, throwing the keys to Zach. “Where’s the dalek?”

“Boss?”

“No shit. Dalek, where?”

“Something killed it. A woman.” He said nervously, stepping out of the van. 

The man masquerading as a police officer rolled his slitted eyes. “You don’t  **kill** a dalek.”

“I swear. We all saw it. She just looked at it and it stopped, stone dead.”

He looked to the other two who nodded in agreement. 

“We couldn’t believe it. The Torchwood guys went to investigate and… We… um… Don’t know what happened after that.”

“Were they alive when you were arrested?”

“Yea.”

“Then she’s probably working for them then isn’t she.” He said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Which is lucky for you three because you know where she’ll be.”

“Boss?”

“You lost the dalek so you bring me the girl, or I take out my anger on you. What do you think goldilocks? Feel like being my personal punching bag?” He grinned, showing long, snakelike, fangs.

Zach swallowed hard. “N-no. We’ll get her. Just give us some time and we’ll find a way to bring her back.”

“Good.” He pulled a wad of bank notes from inside his coat and threw it at Donny who just managed to catch it. “Now, get walking. It’s about ten miles until you reach the city outskirts and if you fuck this up you’re done, understand?”

“Yes boss!”

“Now, I’ve got places to be and a dead copper to bury.” 

A man staggered from the other side of the van, clutching his throat, the veins in his face visible as he choked and collapsed to the road. 

“Huh, thought he’d have suffocated by now. They make them out of stronger stuff around here.” He smirked, grabbing the officer by the back of his shirt and dragging him to the back of the van, tossing him in like a bag of potatoes before slamming the doors closed. “Right, as I was saying, don’t fuck this up Zachariah.” He walked round to the drivers side and climbed in.

“I won’t boss.”

The engine started up and the van drove away, leaving the three to walk back to civilization as thunder rolled overhead. 

The day plodded along, day peacefully turning to night, rain cleansing the city air. The chaos of the week almost feeling like a distant memory. Jack leaned back in his office chair, appreciating the moment of silence as his team had just left for home. He took his boots off the desk as his phone rang.

“Martha. Good to hear from you.” He smiled.

The warm female voice on the other end sighed like she’d had a very long day. “Sorry, I’ve been in meetings most of today. I got Iantos message but I’m not sure I understood it. What’s this about Osiris?”

“Do you know who they are?”

“They’re black market alien artefacts dealers.”

“Well, they were. They’ve moved up to being a full on paramilitary group and last night they tried to buy a dalek to kill us.”

“Did you just say a dalek? How? Why?”

“Apparently we’re a thorn in their side. We are but still.”

“Wait, where did they find a dalek?”

“That’s what we’re working on, but it gets more interesting. We think they have their claws in someone high up at UNIT. That’s why they haven’t been dealt with before now.”

“If it was anyone but you telling me that I wouldn’t believe it… We need to talk face to face.”

“And I need a favour.”

“What do you need?”

“I need a prisoner held by a squad you trust. Keep it out of the hands of whoever’s been compromised.”

“Can’t you hold them?”

“They attacked one of my team. If they mouth off at me they might end up in bad shape.”

“Oh god, are they ok?”

“She’s fine, but it hit a raw nerve and I need him out of the hub.”

“I can do that. I’ll have him picked up tomorrow afternoon. I assume you want me to come to you to talk this over.”

“I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.”

“I know… Um… One sec.” She rifled through a set of papers in her diary. “Can you give me five days?”

“Yea. As long as that Osiris bastard’s out of my home I don’t mind waiting.”

“Great. Then I’ll see you next week. I’ll be bringing someone I trust with me.”

“No problem. I look forward to seeing you again.”

“Me too. I’ve missed you lot. How is Owen by the way?”

“He’s fine. You’d never guess he’d been near fatally wounded less than two years ago.”

“This is a man who would tell death to piss off while stitching his own organs back in, I can completely believe it.”

He chuckled warmly. “True.”

“Everyone  **is** still there aren’t they?”

“I would have told you if I’d lost anyone. We’re all alive and well.”

“You can’t blame me for asking. The five of you against the world isn’t great odds.”

“You’re always welcome to join us.”

“Ask me after another day of boring meetings. Anyway, I’ve got to go. It’s date night.”

“Good idea. Take care out there.”

“You too.” 

He set down the phone, feeling a little better about the near future. Ianto rounded the door to the office, his jacket and waistcoat folded over his arm. 

“Was that Martha?” He asked. 

“Yea. She’s sending someone to pick Sean up tomorrow and she’s going to come and see us next week.”

“Good. Looks like we’re sorted for a few days then.”

“Which means we have the night off.”

“Yes we do.”

“Dinner?”

“I don’t feel like cooking if I’m honest.” 

“No.” He stood moving around his desk. “Let’s go out for dinner.”

Ianto gave a slight smile in surprise. “As in…”

“A date... Why not?”

“I’m not saying no.”

“Right then. I’ll grab my coat.” He beamed.

The next day, Melody sat in a small café sipping a lemonade, waiting. Her mother walked in and spotted her, smiling. 

“Morning.” The older woman said cheerfully. 

Mel looked up. “Hi mum. Want me to grab you anything?”

“No, no, it’s ok.” She sat in the seat across from her daughter. “How are you? The other night was…”

“I’m ok. Not like I’m a stranger to drama.”

“Still, that was terrifying. I thought I’d lost you.”

“I’m not going anywhere, promise… Um… About Delilah.”

“Don’t worry about her. She’s lucky I’m still talking to her. Persephone isn’t. After that stunt she pulled she’ll be lucky if she isn’t bloody disowned.”

“It’s ok.”

“No, sweetheart, it’s not. It never was. Persephone told me how bad it used to be and… If I’d known…”

“You had enough on your plate.”

“But I’m the parent. It’s my job to deal with these things. You should never have felt like you had to weather that. It’s no wonder you were always so shy and never came out of your room.”

“No, that was just me being me. I’m ok now, seriously. I’ve done a lot of growing these past months.”

“You have so many friends now. Jessica said you’re so happy at your new job and you’re off on your own. I’m proud of you.” 

Mel bit back the lump in her throat. “Thanks.”

“Just… Please tell me you’re safe.”

“Huh?”

“Your job… You are safe, aren’t you?”

“Mum, it’s just an office job.”

“I’ve been protecting you from as much of this strange stuff as I can since you were four, it might be a job in an office but it’s not just an office job now is it.”

“I…” She took a sip of her drink. “My friends keep me safe. They’re pretty protective of me because I’m the youngest there.”

“Good… That man that told Delilah off-”

“He’s a medic and yea, I work with him. His girlfriend said he didn’t calm down for hours.”

“Sounds like your father. I had to convince him not to drive all the way here just to give her a piece of his mind. I haven’t heard him shout like that in years… As long as you’re sure you’re in good hands I won’t ask you to come home, just give me a call once in a while, yea?”

“I’ll try.”

There was a long silence before Johanna spoke. “So… How did you know about Delilahs affairs?”

“I remembered their names from some emails I saw on the computer at home and I looked them up. Did a little facebook snooping. It wasn’t hard to find to be honest.”

“Ah. Well, Hayden’s staying with me and your dad until the paternity test is sorted out.”

“Think he’ll be ok?”

“I’m sure he’ll be fine. He just gets to have a little holiday with nanny and grandpa. Persephone’s taking him for a walk around the block if you want to see him.”

Melody chugged the last of her drink. “Yea. I’d like that.” 

The rain had stopped only an hour before and the hair still felt heavy with water as they stepped out onto the street. Persephone was sat on the wall next to the café, wiping Haydens hands as he’d been happily gumming a rusk and spreading it as far as possible.

“Oh, hi.” She said, wrapping the wet wipe up and throwing it in the bin. 

Mel gave a small smile and a wave in reply. 

“Hello little man. Was that biscuit nice?” Johanna crouched in front of the pushchair, smiling warmly. “Look, who’s this. You’ve never met your aunty Melody before.”

She approached carefully and smiled at the baby who was staring up at her. “Hi kiddo.”

He smiled a shy toothless grin and pulled his blanket up by his face, giggling. 

“It’s ok. I’m kind of awkward too. But look, same hair.” She pointed at the blonde curls covering his head. 

He reached out and grabbed her finger in his tiny hand, babbling about whatever was going on in his tiny baby mind. 

She never could quite understand baby thoughts. They were a bit chaotic but she got the picture that he was very happy and could go for another biscuit. 


End file.
